Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado Recipient of "Full Punitive Power of Mexican State"

Aristegui Noticias:

Iimprisoned now for nearly three years, Nestora Salgado, leader of the Community Police [Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities, CRAC (Spanish acronym)] in Olinalá, Guerrero, is

"typical of the criminalization of indigenous social leadership, with hints of discrimination" due to gender, attorney Alejandra Gonza told Carmin Aristegui in an interview on CNN.

Gonza is an attorney who specializes in international law and a member of the team of lawyers from the International Human Rights Clinic of Seattle University, which represents Nestora Salgado at the United Nations and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Gonza charged:

"An obvious arbitrary detention jumped out from the first review of the legal file. A warrantless transfer to a maximum security prison and unacceptable conditions of detention in solitary confinement."

These conditions led the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to conclude that Salgado's arrest and subsequent imprisonment was "illegal and arbitrary", as her judicial proceeding was 'unjust'. After the UN Working Group's ruling was announced on February 3, Nestora Salgado "should be released," said Gonza, before adding:

"Implementation follows, that the Guerrero State Prosecutor desist [from bringing up three additional pending charges], that judges act and that the federal government require the state of Guerrero to release and compensate her."

It is up to Guerrero state authorities to free the Community Police leader, because she no longer faces any federal charges, said the lawyer, who then explained:

"They started ordinary judicial processes in Guerrero, for the crime of kidnapping. When they took her (to prison in) Nayarit, they wanted to make all those criminal case into a single federal case; namely, for the charge of organized crime in the form of kidnapping. The PGR accept that, the charge is raised at the federal level and she wins this case on appeal and acquittal at the federal level."

Nestora still faces charges of kidnapping, brought by the state of Guerrero. According to Gonza, the charges were "put together", since the Army freed the people detained by the Community Police. But these people later accused Nestora of having deprived them of their liberty and then demanding a ransom.

The arrest of a local official stealing cows from a person who had been murdered at the hands of the Community Police and Salgado's knowledge about cases of child sexual exploitation are some of what explains the State's offensive against her, Gonza explained, before concluding:

"Her criminal trial is a unilateral process where the punitive power of the State is all against her, and all defensive procedural opportunities for counteracting all this punitive power are totally nullified."

Grisel Rodríguez Salgado, the youngest of Nestora Salgado's three daughters, asked the government to allow her mother to return home after three years of imprisonment.

"Now it's going to be three birthdays, three Christmases have already passed. I believe that's already just, right? We hope they comply. They have done enough damage up to now."

Grisel said that her mother

"emigrated to the United States when she was 18. As soon as she resolved her legal status [Nestora Salgado is a naturalized U.S. citizen], she returned to Olinalá and saw the whole situation of how its people were living (...) submerged in poverty. It's what pushed her to work with her community."

Grisel pointed out:

"In 2012 the people were fed up with so much violence, so much corruption, so much collaboration between the local authority and organized crime. There were kidnappings, they killed, and it wasn't unusual. The people were already asking, 'Whose turn is it now? At whose home, who will mourn next?' 

"It wasn't just Nestora. It was the people who were sick and tired of living in this insecurity. That's when the Community Police of Olinalá were established."

Spanish original

For more on this story, see Nestora Salgado.

Related MV Translations:

• Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Judges Order Nestora Salgado's Judicial Process 'Restarted' (2/26/2016);
• Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado, UN and State Attorney General Olea (2/22/2016);
• Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado Stands Tall Supported by International Law (2/21/2016);
• Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Government Deliberately Manipulating Judicial Proceeding Against Nestora Salgado - Lawyer (2/16/2016);
• Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: UN Group's Resolution to Release Nestora Binding on Government (2/4/2016);
• Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado's Arrest "Illegal and Arbitrary" - UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (2/3/2016); 
• Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado's Letter from Tepepan Women's Prison (8/28/2015);
• Mexico: Guerrero State Superior Court to Streamline Nestora Salgado's Judicial Process (8/26/2015);
• Nestora Salgado, the Narco-State and Patriarchal Violence (8/24/2015);
• Nestora Salgado Should be Released Immediately" - Human Rights Groups (8/12/2015);
• Witnesses Against Nestora Salgado Fail to Appear to Testify; Process Delayed (8/11/2015);
• Nestora Salgado Presents Her Case (8/10/2015);
• Nestora Salgado Charges: "The Criminals Respected Community Police; The Government Wanted to Destroy Us" (6/23/2015);
• Nestora Salgado Is Illegally Imprisoned; Victim of Irregular Court Proceedings (5/11/2015);
• Mexico-Guerrero: Defending CRAC-PC In Its Time of Crisis (7/19/2014);
• Community Police and Self-Defense Groups: A Necessary Distinction (1/23/2014);
• Self-Defense Groups and Community Police Are Not the Same (1/20/2014);
• "Being a Community Police Officer Is Not a Choice, But An Assembly Decision" (9/27/2013);
• Community Police Justice Focuses On Re-Education, Study and Work for 'Criminals' in Guerrero, Mexico (6/9/2013);
• Leaders of CRAC Community Police Defend Their 17-Year Record of "Good Work" (3/22/2013).